7. The Velvet Revolution (Gentle Revolution) of Czechoslovakia
The Velvet Revolution occured in November of 1989 and occured over a span of only ten days of revolutions and overall only took six weeks for them to achieve change! With revolutions going on all over Europe it was clear that the Communist Bloc countries wanted change and it was only a matter of time until Czechoslovakia joined in. But what is really amazing about this event was how quick it was and how it had little violence. On the first day, November 17th, 1989, students started a demonstartion for the day of International Student's Day. It started off as a memorial for the death of Jan Opletal, but ended up with the students demanding more democratic reform. So they beganto march to Wenceslas Square, but in the end, police officers blocked the students in. The police officers then beat up the students which lead to the injuring of 167 people. It is also said that one person died, but this wasn't proven and is generally considered a false statement. This kicked off the next days of revolution in Czecholslovakia because it would obviously make a lot of people mad that the police would beat up students for speaking their mind and they agreed on the idea of democratic reform. Numbers of protestors continued to grow daily and by November 20th the number of protestors grew to an impressive 500,000 people! Protests continued and it lead up to a strike that included all citizens of Czecholslovakia and took place for two hours on November 27, 1989. By then the message was clear, the people wanted their government to change and they were not going to take no as an answer. So on November 28th, 1989, the Communist Party started to dissolve and on December 10th, 1989 Gustav Husak, the current Communist leader, set in place a government that was more non-communist. With this the revolutions ended and Czechoslovakia was left in its first democratic government since the year 1948. The whole revolution wasn't so much trying to break a law or rule as much as it was trying to change its government as a whole. The country of Czechoslovakia had been under Communist rule since 1948 and was present until this revolution. So this revolution can be considered Czecholslovakia's own version of civil diobedience against its Communist government.
The second picture is the memorial for the student protest and the start of the Velvet Revolution (if you follow this link you will be at the site I got the picture from and you can read a quick synopsis of the event in the eyes of a man that was a teenager at the time in Czechoslovakia): http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/008263.html
8. The Rise and Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia
In the years leading up to 1948 Communism was on the rise in Czechoslovakia. In 1945, citizens started to lean towards the Soviet alliance, this is due to the disappointment resulted from the Munich Agreement that followed World War II. This caused citizens to lose faith in Western Europe and turn to the KSC, a political group in Czechoslovakia that represented Communism. By the end of the year support for the group reached 1.1 million people. In the next couple years nothing much occurred, but in 1948 the KSC made their move. In this year the KSC took advantage of the chaos that occurred after 12 ministers resigned from office. They thought it would cause the Communist party to yield, but it didn't. So the KSC gained support from the Soviets and took over Prague with armed militia and police under their control. They quickly put Communists into political positions and took over the government for the next 42 years. First thoughts of liberalization started to form in 1968 with the start of the Prague Spring, which was a period of time where reform ideas began to take place in Czechoslovakia. Alexander Dubcek, the current person in charge during 1968, started ideas of granting additional rights such as less restrictions in media, speech, and travel, but Warsaw Pact troops occupied the country and stopped all attempts of this until the Velvet Revolution. They wanted to prevent the decentralization of the economy and democracy that Dubcek was planning because it went against the Soviet system. Then as I explained above the citizens of Czechoslovakia began fighting for these rights and started the Velvet Revolution which resulted in the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia. So it wasn't really a law or rule that was broken it was more of the governmental systme that they protested against. But if you were to say a rule that was broken it would have to be that they went against all the restrictions on speech that were present during Communism to fight for equal rights. Speech was limited in Czechoslovakia and the Velvet Revolution was all about democratic reform which was one of the ways that their speech was limited. It was "needed" in Czechoslovakia at the time because by limiting the speech of the citizens the KSC and other Communists in Czechoslovakia were hoping to prevent exactly what happened in the Velvet Revolution, political reform. It wasn't necessary, but the Communist government saw it as necessary to keep themselves in power. But as I said the citizens decided to break this rule and this resulted with the Velvet Revolution.
10. "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." - Henry Thoreau
This is where i found the quote, check out this site for more interesting quotes from Thoreau: Thoreau Quotes
In the above quote Thoreau describes that going against something you see as wrong is the only way that you can ever acheive true liberty and if you aren't willing to do so you are just a slave to the system known as government. This is a great way to describe the events that occurred during the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia. This is because up until November 17th, 1989 the people of Czechoslovakia were basically slaves to their government. Although there were periodically some disagreements and signs of dislike for the Communist government it didn't really greatly change anything until the beginning of the Velvet Revolution when disobedience really started. At this point everyone gathered in protest and general strikes to show disapproval for their government. They went to great lengths like the student protest that led to the injuring of 167 and that is when results really started to occur. With the Velvet Revolution it marked the start of when all the citizens of Czechoslovakia all unified and became disobedient. This act shows exactly how much disobedience against government counts, after they did so it took 10 days and they had been in Communism for about 41 years! That is what Thoreau is saying in his quote, if you want justice you have to rally up your forces and show your disobedience, but until that point you are a slave of government.
There were many good music artist during the 80's. Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna. This time era focused more on pop&rap/hip hop. There were also many good rock/metal bands like Iron Maiden, AC/Dc, Aerosmith, and Ozzy Osbourne. There where many good artist during this time era, some influenced by the Velvet revoulution.
Gabe
Nikki
Chris (Chris's Journal)
2. Václav Havel
Sites of the Pictures
http://www.myczechrepublic.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=9945
http://www.pustakalaya.org/wiki/images/270/27003.png
http://lectures.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/200px-vaclav_havel.jpg
http://img.radio.cz/pictures/historie/89-11-24dubcek_alexander1x.jpg
http://www.prague-life.com/media/pics/velvet-revolution.jpg
3. The Velvet Revolution https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MYO9Fb5fCkqZdp11BxDLRpVENzIfHfXD9VnIYnp6bak/edit?hl=en
4.
This will help you further understand what was going on during the Velvet Revolution in the 80's.
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28TX%2CNone%2C17%29Velvet+revolution%3AAnd%3AFQE%3D%28TX%2CNone%2C24%29czech+Velvet+revolution+%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28AC%2CNone%2C8%29fulltext%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=Relevance&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&searchId=R2¤tPosition=6&userGroupName=s0840&docId=A167294706&docType=IAC&contentSet=IAC-Documents
5:Nov. 9, 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
6. An article from any type of publication(editorial, essay, blog, etc.) that takes an opposing view on the act of disobedience http://www.veteransforpeace.org/mcphearson_act_of_civil_disobedience.vp.html
7. The Velvet Revolution (Gentle Revolution) of Czechoslovakia
The Velvet Revolution occured in November of 1989 and occured over a span of only ten days of revolutions and overall only took six weeks for them to achieve change! With revolutions going on all over Europe it was clear that the Communist Bloc countries wanted change and it was only a matter of time until Czechoslovakia joined in. But what is really amazing about this event was how quick it was and how it had little violence. On the first day, November 17th, 1989, students started a demonstartion for the day of International Student's Day. It started off as a memorial for the death of Jan Opletal, but ended up with the students demanding more democratic reform. So they beganto march to Wenceslas Square, but in the end, police officers blocked the students in. The police officers then beat up the students which lead to the injuring of 167 people. It is also said that one person died, but this wasn't proven and is generally considered a false statement. This kicked off the next days of revolution in Czecholslovakia because it would obviously make a lot of people mad that the police would beat up students for speaking their mind and they agreed on the idea of democratic reform. Numbers of protestors continued to grow daily and by November 20th the number of protestors grew to an impressive 500,000 people! Protests continued and it lead up to a strike that included all citizens of Czecholslovakia and took place for two hours on November 27, 1989. By then the message was clear, the people wanted their government to change and they were not going to take no as an answer. So on November 28th, 1989, the Communist Party started to dissolve and on December 10th, 1989 Gustav Husak, the current Communist leader, set in place a government that was more non-communist. With this the revolutions ended and Czechoslovakia was left in its first democratic government since the year 1948. The whole revolution wasn't so much trying to break a law or rule as much as it was trying to change its government as a whole. The country of Czechoslovakia had been under Communist rule since 1948 and was present until this revolution. So this revolution can be considered Czecholslovakia's own version of civil diobedience against its Communist government.
For more on the Velvet Revolution check this link : http://www.prague-life.com/prague/velvet-revolution
The first picture shows people protesting in Czecholslovakia during the Velvet Revolution :
http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/galerie/marie-sechtlova2/89-listopad-nfilm1214-prepr.jpg
The second picture is the memorial for the student protest and the start of the Velvet Revolution (if you follow this link you will be at the site I got the picture from and you can read a quick synopsis of the event in the eyes of a man that was a teenager at the time in Czechoslovakia): http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/008263.html
8. The Rise and Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia
In the years leading up to 1948 Communism was on the rise in Czechoslovakia. In 1945, citizens started to lean towards the Soviet alliance, this is due to the disappointment resulted from the Munich Agreement that followed World War II. This caused citizens to lose faith in Western Europe and turn to the KSC, a political group in Czechoslovakia that represented Communism. By the end of the year support for the group reached 1.1 million people. In the next couple years nothing much occurred, but in 1948 the KSC made their move. In this year the KSC took advantage of the chaos that occurred after 12 ministers resigned from office. They thought it would cause the Communist party to yield, but it didn't. So the KSC gained support from the Soviets and took over Prague with armed militia and police under their control. They quickly put Communists into political positions and took over the government for the next 42 years. First thoughts of liberalization started to form in 1968 with the start of the Prague Spring, which was a period of time where reform ideas began to take place in Czechoslovakia. Alexander Dubcek, the current person in charge during 1968, started ideas of granting additional rights such as less restrictions in media, speech, and travel, but Warsaw Pact troops occupied the country and stopped all attempts of this until the Velvet Revolution. They wanted to prevent the decentralization of the economy and democracy that Dubcek was planning because it went against the Soviet system. Then as I explained above the citizens of Czechoslovakia began fighting for these rights and started the Velvet Revolution which resulted in the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia. So it wasn't really a law or rule that was broken it was more of the governmental systme that they protested against. But if you were to say a rule that was broken it would have to be that they went against all the restrictions on speech that were present during Communism to fight for equal rights. Speech was limited in Czechoslovakia and the Velvet Revolution was all about democratic reform which was one of the ways that their speech was limited. It was "needed" in Czechoslovakia at the time because by limiting the speech of the citizens the KSC and other Communists in Czechoslovakia were hoping to prevent exactly what happened in the Velvet Revolution, political reform. It wasn't necessary, but the Communist government saw it as necessary to keep themselves in power. But as I said the citizens decided to break this rule and this resulted with the Velvet Revolution.
Click here for more information on the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia :
http://www.helium.com/items/1189358-alexander-dubcek-prague-spring-czechoslovakia-occupation
Click here for more information on the rise of Communism in Czechoslovakia : http://www.heartofeurope.co.uk/history_slovakia11.htm
This is where I found the picture for this section and it is of the coup in Czechoslovakia when the Communists gained control: http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/1777DB1B-B752-4B79-A346-00A5E9A6B6B6/HU060143.jpg
10. "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." - Henry Thoreau
This is where i found the quote, check out this site for more interesting quotes from Thoreau: Thoreau QuotesIn the above quote Thoreau describes that going against something you see as wrong is the only way that you can ever acheive true liberty and if you aren't willing to do so you are just a slave to the system known as government. This is a great way to describe the events that occurred during the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia. This is because up until November 17th, 1989 the people of Czechoslovakia were basically slaves to their government. Although there were periodically some disagreements and signs of dislike for the Communist government it didn't really greatly change anything until the beginning of the Velvet Revolution when disobedience really started. At this point everyone gathered in protest and general strikes to show disapproval for their government. They went to great lengths like the student protest that led to the injuring of 167 and that is when results really started to occur. With the Velvet Revolution it marked the start of when all the citizens of Czechoslovakia all unified and became disobedient. This act shows exactly how much disobedience against government counts, after they did so it took 10 days and they had been in Communism for about 41 years! That is what Thoreau is saying in his quote, if you want justice you have to rally up your forces and show your disobedience, but until that point you are a slave of government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution
13. An annotated list of people (linked) that have been affected by the act throughout history. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/world/europe/16iht-czech.html
14.Music of the 80's
There were many good music artist during the 80's. Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna. This time era focused more on pop&rap/hip hop. There were also many good rock/metal bands like Iron Maiden, AC/Dc, Aerosmith, and Ozzy Osbourne. There where many good artist during this time era, some influenced by the Velvet revoulution.
Here are Some:
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_artists80pop.html
15. Create two questions to contribute to the scavenger hunt.
1.)What is the KSC? KSC, a political group in Czechoslovakia that represented Communism.
2.)What day did communism end in Czechoslovakia? December 10th, 1989